I'll begin with preschool. My friend Morgan, who is three, loves trains, so that was his theme. If you want a young child (or anyone, actually) to make valentines, they need intinsic motivation, so go with the theme the child chooses so long as it is appropriate. They may need some prompting. At the preschool ages, children need to experiment freely with a wide variety of media. They should not copy tutorials or simply color in coloring pictures (that is a whole discussion for another time), but should get a feel for various media and techniques while expressing themselves with as few limits as possible. For our valentines, Morgan cut out and tore paper, glued collages, used recycled cardboard (that was safe to use), colored and drew trains with pencils, painted trains with watercolor, and with supervision used perment marker on top of the recycled collages. We even tried to make cardboard hearts with string wrapped around it, but he got bored with that process quickly. In short, we used lots of media and made different kinds of valentines to not only hold his attention and make them fun, but also so he could continue using his imagination, fine motor skills, and grow more proficient at all different media (although he is advanced in artistic development and quite skilled at the media already). Just give your child lots of supplies, and supervise/prompt them as they create. I cut out the cardboard hearts to make the process more efficient (since their attention spans may not be very long at that age). After, write "Happy Valentine's Day", preferrably add a pun to go with the theme, and have the child sign in cursive, which is easier than regular writing. On our heart collages, I wrote "I love you from the bottom of my heart" with the "I love you" literally on the bottom part. I thought it was hilarious, but then again, I am easily amused by puns, especially when a fitting one just pops into mind like that one. I also added train whistles from Dollar Tree to go with them.
My friend Lillie made hers all on her own, but I thought they were great and wanted to share them. If you have a child at the elementary stage or at the point where they love to write, they could cut out hearts (she told me she used one of the cardboard hearts as a template to trace), write a message inside, and then add something such as pencils. If they don't like to write, then they could try one of the activities above or use a new medium. We washi-taped in glowsticks (which was her suggestion). Make sure that the child signs their name, preferrably in cursive since that is much easier to learn, more fun, and looks very pretty.
I hope these quick tips and ideas are helpful! I have some art history inspired valentines to share next! Thanks for visiting!
-Lauryn